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The King of Rats
From the still completely truthful and definitely-what-happened journal of Ted Barnes. Part One: Rats, Arts and Other Anagrams For a couple of weeks, Ted has been learning what he can about the different Traditions. He feels a little more confident with magic now, and has been fortunately able to cover the Paradox scars under his clothing. Since he is still technically homeless, he's been staying in hotels (hasn't wanted to get in touch with his family for support in case the Technocracy is led back to them) and financing himself by winning discretely on Lotto scratchcards. Whilst having some breakfast in a cafe near the Tate Gallery, Ted reads in his paper about an exhibition that's opened there recently. Noticing a picture of William Hartnell above it (there is a short article about a missing Doctor Who episode having been recovered), Ted feels the pull of destiny and decides to visit the exhibtion. 1: Ring of Truth Once there he notices a young woman (Molly) who is clearly Awakened 1: Sense Quintessence, and joins the same tour group as she does. As the guide talks about the first painting in the exhibit, an oddly-spoken man dressed as a clown appears from thin air and declares that he is going to make things more fun for everyone. The clown (who was later discovered to be a Marauder named Pennywise) warps reality around himself, trapping the Sleepers in the various paintings and transforming the gallery into a hideous circus tent. Ted threatens Pennywise with violence if he doesn't return things to normal, however the clown just laughs and disappears. Two more mages (Julia and Jarvis) have arrived, and a third (a sniper named Roland King) reveals his presence, having concealed himself in the gallery's rafters waiting for his own targets to arrive. Before anyone can attempt to figure out how Pennywise has effected this change, two mechanical lions and a mechanical bear burst through the gallery doors to attack the group and a desperate fight begins. That'll teach Molly to say "At least we aren't being attacked by lions and bears." There are several maulings, though mostly nobody is hurt too badly. The lions and bear are disabled enough for Julia to attempt to force Pennywise out from the Umbra Warding: Spirit 2, Prime 2 and back into reality where he can be dealt with. She has a little difficulty at first, however Ted reinforces her attempt Effect, Prime 2 and Pennywise is dragged into the real world, where after several tense minutes of combat, Roland puts a bullet through his head and takes him out. With Pennywise's death the room returns to normal, and the mechanical animals are revealed to be cybernetic agents of the Technocracy who have been accompanied to the gallery by Mr. Fox and Mr. Dane (Roland's targets). Given the sudden emergence of the previously trapped sleepers and the extensive damage to the gallery, the group decides to run away and meet up again at Jarvis's lab and splits up into two groups in order to ditch the MiBs. Back at the lab, it becomes quickly apparent that this group is highly dysfunctional. Roland is only really concerned with killing his targets, Molly is acting like a typical angry teenager and Julia and Jarvis clearly do not get along too well despite officially working together. Ted is considering that it might be time to leave, but examinations of security footage 2, Time 2 Effect from Roland from the gallery reveal that at the same time that Pennywise attacked, someone or something moving at great speed broke into the back rooms and stole an artifact. Before anything else can be learned however, the doorbell rings and a policeman demands entry to ask questions regarding a break-in at a house a few doors down the street. This is a little suspicious since Jarvis mentions that there are no houses on this street, only offices and business premises. Everyone except for Jarvis and Julia hides in one of the backrooms, while the policeman is invited in. Mr. Fox and Mr. Dane enter behind the policeman, who seems to be oblivious to their presence. The two MiBs place the policeman under a hypnotic suggestion to attack Julia and Jarvis and a fight begins. The remainder of the group hears the commotion and joins the fray, with the two MiBs eventually being killed to Roland's great satisfaction. Ted convinces the policeman that they found him out on the streets wandering around deliriously With any, many successes on Manipulation & Expression, Julia takes him back to a nearby station from which he can get himself home. Further analysis of the security footage leads the group to learn that the robber was some form of wererat, and that he fled into the sewers. Ted isn't especially keen to get involved any further but agrees to join the investigation since he reasons that this is probably the source of the feeling he got reading the paper that morning. Roland, despite having no reason to continue on with the group, is in a good humour following the disposal of the MiBs and agrees to join them. Down in the sewers, the trail is beginning to run cold. Julia calls a spiritual bloodhound 3 to follow the trail and it manages to show them the right path to follow. Eventually they reach a crossroads in the sewers and having left the dog to guard the way, they came the group is unsure how to proceed. Ted attempts to determine which path they should follow 1, but only succeeds in learning that the choice of direction here could have "dire consequences". The path that the group follows is the wrong one, and the group finds themselves trapped as a grating falls down behind them. As Jarvis lights his opium pipe (his focus for the spirit-detecting spell he was about to try), two hideous vampires Nosferatu, oddly enough. are revealed to be standing next to him. The group prepares to attack them immediately, however Ted (worried about the consequences of starting a fight here) manages to act quicker and calms everyone down enough to talk to the vampires instead of attacking them. Three more vampires then reveal themselves behind the group and move into a position to attack if necessary. After a little negotiation, the group is allowed to leave without incident and they follow another tunnel that leads them to the wererat's hiding place. Sadly, the group is not fast enough to prevent the rat-man's escape and he evades their pursuit, warning them not to pursue him to Germany. Taking this conspicuously overt clue, they immediately decide to do exactly that and requisition an airship from one of Jarvis' old drinking buddies. Part Two: The Hermetic of Hamlin The mages fly via airship to Germany and, near Hamlin, are greeted with powerful storms that threaten to tear the ship apart. Julia realises that there are several storm elementals behind this and manifests her dragon Avatar to coerce them into relenting 3, allowing the ship to land safely. Having traced the rat-man's previous activities to a castle in the area, the group heads there immediately. The gates are closed, but they are able to persuade the castle's owner to lower the drawbridge by threatening to damage it if he's not prepared to have a civilised conversation. Aries Michaels (the Hermetic mage who resides there) is happy to give the group an audience, and reveals that he did indeed hire the wererat to steal the artifact (a priceless amulet that improves the power of Mind magic) for him. He refuses to return the amulet, not out of spite, but because he hasn't actually received it. Furthermore, the rat-man has stolen another magical item from Michaels, a 'rat-king' (a gruesome collection of preserved dead rats tied together by the tails), which could be used by its possessor to mentally control rats and other rodents. Michaels believes that the wererat has taken it to the temple of the rat goddess Karni Mata in India, where he no doubt has some diabolical purpose in mind. If the group retrieves the amulet for him, Michaels agrees to give them some of his minor artifacts in return. Once more they take off in the stolen airship and follow the rat-man's path, to India this time. Arriving at the temple, they find that the temple's custodians are in fact a sisterhood of peaceable Verbena mages. Molly is welcomed immediately by her colleagues, who agree to help the group secure the area by asking the tourists to leave. No sooner are the Sleepers removed, then things begin to go wrong. A sudden attack by a Euthanatos strike team kills the unprepared Verbena temple guardians. Whilst Julia, Jarvis and Roland head outside to deal with them, Ted and Molly discover that the wererat has been killed by the mage in charge of this strike force. In the imbroglio that follows, Molly causes her opponent to have a heart attack 3; Rip the Man-Body and Ted, believing that the man will no longer be a danger, moves to leave the temple to help the rest of the group outside, for whom the situation is looking bad. Unfortunately, the strike force leader was more potent than they had thought, and he resumes his attack on Molly with a concealed knife. Hearing the sudden commotion and sensing the sudden increased hostility of the mind-controlled rats swarming through the temple, Ted hurries back and is eventually forced to kill the Euthanatos leader by repeating the 'newspaper trick'. He and Molly were unable to prevent him from attaching the amulet to the rat-king and now the swarms of rats in the temple are going berserk: these two humans had just murdered their rat-sovereign! Outside, the group has eventually prevailed against the Euthanatos despite their furious and well-coordinated attack. Upon returning to the interior of the temple, they discover that Ted and Molly are being engulfed by the rat swarms and attempt to free them. Using a scroll given to her by Michaels, Molly is able to open a temporary portal that will lead back to Hamlin. Freaking out, Ted runs through it immediately, followed quickly by the others. Before escaping, Julia uses her medium abilities 2 to contact an aspect of Karni Mata and convinces her to calm the rats down. The group now safely back in the castle, Michaels is delighted to have the amulet in his possession and whilst apparently saddened by the deaths of the Verbena decides that he will "take responsibility" for the temple and the Node therein. The group is led to his immense artifact vault, where he offers them rewards for their service. * Jarvis accepts a huge, brilliant green emerald called the Heart of Khalni; it turns out to be a Periapt with Vibrant quintessence, helping him power more of his offensive magics. * Molly takes the Sub Rosa, a perfectly-preserved rose à la Beauty and the Beast, which can create wards of silence and non-detection when the wielder pricks her finger on its thorns. * Roland takes a bag of Sleeping Dust, which he considers will come in handy for certain subterfuge missions. * Julia declines a reward and instead requests that he releases the storm elementals that he has been using to deter visitors. Reluctantly, Michaels agrees, and the joyful elementals promise to grant Julia a boon in the future. Ted is less noble in his request and takes an old manuscript as his reward. To his delight, he discovers that he is now in possession of the original notes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, when he wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles. By reading from the manuscript, he is able to summon a spiritual ally that can assist him, a hound based on the book's titular beast. Ted names the ghostly dog 'Charlie'. Category:Adventures Category:Mage